Once
again the heads of the American oil cartel are raising their hands�but
not in surrender. They are taking the oath to testify under the glaring
spotlight of the US Senate Judiciary Committee. The last time the oil
executives were summoned to the Senate was Nov. 9 when gas prices skyrocketed
over $3.00 per gallon. Testifying this time were: Ross Pillari, CEO
of BP (formerly BP-Amoco); David J. O'Reilly, CEO of Chevron
(formerly Chevron-Texaco which swallowed Gulf Oil; James Mulva,
CEO of ConocoPhillips; Rex W. Tillerman, CEO of Exxon-Mobil (the Standard
Oil flagship company and tutorial head of the Rockefeller oil "family");
John D. Hofmeister, CEO of Shell Oil (formerly Royal Dutch-Shell);
and William R. Klesse, CEO of Valero Energy (formerly Diamond Shamrock).

The
simple question the Senate wanted answered was: with an abundance of
oil available for refining, and guarantees from our economic allies
in the Mideast that they would fill any shortfall created by Iran if
the Persians cut off the flow of oil to their friends in an attempt
to create shortages that would impact the economies of the United States
and the European Union�why is the price of gasoline and other petroleum-based
products still rising? Surprising, this time around, none of the oil
executives blamed prices on their "peak oil" theories. Nor did they
admit that the oil price spike is caused by oil company futures buyers
who simply bid up the price of their own product while pretending to
be honest brokers who were concerned about shortages created by totalitarian
anti-American regimes like Iran and Venezuela, or natural disasters
that curbed supply.

In
this case, some bright thousand dollar suit in the US Senate�or perhaps
a handful of them�decided that the price of crude was rising because
the Seven Sisters were merging back into a single entity, and that Standard
Oil would reemerge from the ashes of those corporate consolidations.
And, they're probably correct. In 1984 US District Court Judge Harold
Greene shattered Ma Bell and created seven telephone tyrants
where previously only one existed. Over the past 10 years, they are
slowing re-consolidating into two or three telecommunications mega-giants.
On Aug. 3, 1907 US District Court Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis ordered
Standard Oil broken apart.

At
4:00 p.m. on May 15, 1911, US Supreme Court Chief Justice Edward White
confirmed Landis' decision. One oil tyrant became seven oil tyrants�and
then, ten. Since the history of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. and Standard
Oil is a history of leveraging competition and, because Rockefeller
believed oil was a finite resource that would be completely depleted
by 1950, he was determined to control both consumption and pricing to
make the oil last as long as possible�and cost as much as possible.
Spearheading the latest pseudo-assault on the oil industry is Sen. Arlen
Specter, chairman of the Senate Antitrust, Competition and Consumer
Rights Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee. Specter told the
media the hearings would examine evidence that the recent mergers between
Exxon and Mobil, Chevron and Texaco which
swallowed Gulf Oil, BP and Amoco, Conoco
and Phillips, and Royal Dutch Oil and Shell are
responsible for the slowly rising price of oil.

Specter
told the assembled oil cartel CEOs that studies done by his committee
supported the view that there was a strong correlation between soaring
fuel costs, price gouging and other collusive oil company practices
and the recent spate of oil corporation consolidations. These firms�a
composite of the Seven Sisters�and other members of the international
oil cartel drew harsh criticism when Exxon-Mobil announced their
2005 profits�$36.14 billion. Chevron's 4th quarter profits last
year were $13 billion. And, while the oil companies were enjoying obscene
profits during Hurricanes Katrina and Rita�and as the oil futures brokers
employed by the oil industry calmly bid up the price of oil�the American
consumer was stiffed at the pump with gasoline prices as high as $3.69
per gallon. Last week the average nationwide price of gasoline at the
pump was under $2.40. This week its around $2.50 per gallon. Next week,
who knows?

Even
when they are testifying before the US Senate, the arrogant oil barons
play their nefarious control games saying, "We can't control market
forces." But, they do. They founded, financed and used the environmentalist
movement to their greedy end, fabricating the notion that there exists
man-made, carbon dioxide-induced global warming�and then they legally
bribed Congressmen and Senators with campaign contributions to enact
the legislationthat was favorable to their core objective of curbing
the use of what they term as a nonreplenishable fuel in order to drive
up the price of oil and, of course, every consumer product created from
it. For close to 150 years, the oil cartel has believed�and preached�that,
within the next decade or two, the world would run out of oil.

The
doomsday pronouncement is based on the flawed research and fanciful
theories of Gulf Oil geophysicist Dr. Marion King Hubbert. Hubbert made
his peak oil research public on Feb. 4, 1949. He concluded that the
fossil fuel age was about over. In a well-publicized press conference,
Hubbert stated with the certainty of a scientist studying hard evidence,
that by 1956 the world would have reached "peak oil." His theory was
called Hubbert's Peak. He hypothesized that within another decade
or two, it would be all gone. In 1956, Hubbert modified his prediction,
stating that by 1970 the world would have reached peak oil, and within
a decade or two, it would be all gone. In 1971, Hubbert announced that
the world would reach peak oil by 2000, and that by 2030 all of the
world's known reserves would be depleted.

Of
course, as history has already proven, oil is a renewable resource,
and in 2030, Hubbert's surrogate (since Hubbert died in 1989) will claim
that the world has reached "peak," and that by 2050 or 2060, all known
reserves of oil would be gone. When Hubbert made his "corrective" prediction
on his estimate of how much oil was left in the Earth in 1956 and 1971,
most geophysicists�those not working for an oil industry that required
a finite oil source to justify "law of supply and demand" price increases�scoffed
at Hubbert's predictions, and the claims of the oil industry that oil,
like coal, was a fossil fuel.

If
oil and coal originated from decayed plantlife and dinosaurs�and was
not "manufactured" deep in the bowels of Earth as some sort of planetary
lubricant�as the oil industry claims, then it would be safe to assume
that oil is finite, and that at some point in time, we are going to
run out of it. The assumptions are based on the fact that oil and coal
are carbon-based materials as are plants, trees�and dinosaurs. In reality,
as any geologists or geophysicist knows�or should know�carbon is the
spinal column of all life on Earth. Complex carbon molecules that bonded
with other elements�especially oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen�make up
all lifeforms known to man.

There
would be no life on Earth without carbon since carbon is essential�all
living organisms require it. Since no lifeform�contemporary or extinct�has
ever been observed that is not carbon-based, it is assumed by astrobiologists
that in the event life is discovered elsewhere in the universe it will
also be carbon-based. That being so, how can oil industry geophysicists�and
contemporary school teachers�argue that oil is fossil residue and, as
such, not only is it finite, but this time, Hubbert's 1971 estimates
on the amount of oil left in the Earth are correct and that peak oil
has occurred? It would certainly justify the the rapidly escalating
prices.

However,
what the Senate Antitrust, Competition and Consumer Rights Subcommittee
is contemplating�fining the oil industry for price gouging does nothing
to aid the consumer. It helps the US Treasury, and social agencies that
give income tax heating credits to the elderly and the poor, and gasoline
credits to the mass transit industry, but the middle class consumer
will still bear the brunt not only of the higher gasoline prices because
the oil industry artificially created the shortages by curbing independently-owned
oil refineries in order to limit the volume of gasoline and home heating
oil available in order to justify inflating the retail prices of these
consumer products.

Congress
needs to enact legislation that opens ANWR to independent drilling companies
who are not connected to, or funded by, the major oil companies and,
through that legislation, can never be owned or controlled by them.
This would allow independent oil drillers�exclusively�to open ANWR and
drill producing wells and fill the TransCanadian oil pipeline with American
oil. It is interesting that when oil was discovered along the North
Slope below Prudhoe Bay, just below the Arctic Circle, BP-Amoco
and Exxon-Mobil bought every almost every lease from the native
Gwich'in Eskimos. Instead of sinking wells, the oil barons sat
on the leases until their friends in Congress were able to enact the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge National Park legislation that
banned drilling in ANWR to protect the porcupine caribou�the food staple
of the Gwich'in Eskimos.

Legislation
to protect the American consumer from the oil barons should mandate
that 100% of the oil drilled by the independent companies in ANWR be
sold exclusively to independently-owned gas stations in the United States.
Second, the legislation should offer tax incentives (offset by fines
against the major oil companies for price gouging) to independent refineries
that are exempt them from all EPA atmospheric carbon dioxide regulations
since those regulations were orchestrated by the major brand oil companies
to force the independent refineries out of business. The independent
refineries would be required by law to sell only to independent retailers.

The
law would further mandate an crude oil price ceiling of $50 per barrel�with
no mandated minimum prices. What this would do�immediately�would be
to force the oil barons to dramatically cut the price of crude and increase
refinery production. At the same time the major oil companies would
be forced to reopen the refineries they forced out of business in the
1980s and 1990s or risk losing all of their American retail outlets.
This would have the affect of breaking the global oil cartel's grip
on pricing and return oil to the free enterprise marketplace.

Chairman
Specter is correct that legislative action is desperately needed to
solve the oil crisis in America. But his plan will simply compound the
problem by adding a new cost to be borne by middle class taxpayers.
The solution I propose will immediately impact the oil futures market.
It will free up more refined oil products, and bring the price of crude
down to $55 per barrel as the oil barons attempt to head-off a subsidized
industry in America that will break the back of the oil cartel. Whether
or not anything happens is entirely up to you�the American consumer.
If you raise your voice in Washington today, tomorrow, the next day,
next week, next month...more loudly each day, it will happen�and it
will happen quickly.

Subscribe to the NewsWithViews Daily News Alerts!

Enter Your E-Mail Address:

Telephone
your Congressman and Senators every day. Fax them. Email them. You must
remind your Congressman and Senators (who are up for election in November)
if this legislation is not law by Memorial Day, their jobs will be bittersweet
memories in November. AND THEN DO IT! If you think you can't afford
it, think again. You can't afford not to do it. Your Congressmen and
Senators can add. They keep a tally on every issue that could cost them
an election. Make your voice count because you will be the beneficiary
of your effort.

Jon Christian Ryter is the pseudonym of a former
newspaper reporter with the Parkersburg, WV Sentinel. He authored a
syndicated newspaper column, Answers From The Bible, from the mid-1970s
until 1985. Answers From The Bible was read weekly in many suburban
markets in the United States.

Today, Jon is an advertising
executive with the Washington Times. His website, www.jonchristianryter.com
has helped him establish a network of mid-to senior-level Washington
insiders who now provide him with a steady stream of material for use
both in his books and in the investigative reports that are found on
his website.

Chairman Specter is correct that legislative action is desperately needed
to solve the oil crisis in America. But his plan will simply compound
the problem by adding a new cost to be borne by middle class taxpayers.